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Brian D’Isernia, his company to pay $3.25 million

Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at 04:21 PM.

The property where Eastern Shipbuilding sits, while owned by another D’Isernia company, is adjacent to the Lagoon Landing property.

Eastern Shipbuilding builds ships for the oil industry, McGee said, and the need for larger ships has increased as oil wells have moved farther offshore into deeper waters. The basin at Eastern’s Allanton facility wasn’t deep enough to accommodate the larger ships, he said.

McGee said the average time to get a new permit is more than two years; in that time, D’Isernia would’ve lost business to competing companies in China who have fewer regulations. The dredging was a matter of necessity for D’Isernia and his nearly 1,600 employees, McGee said.

D’Isernia’s attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hensel agreed to skip the reading of a statement of facts explaining exactly where and how D’Isernia and Lagoon Landing broke the law, so specific details are not clear, although it appears materials dredged from the basin and the channel ended up in alleged wetlands on Lagoon Landing property that is adjacent to Eastern’s Allanton Yard and East Bay. There was no showing what, if any, environmental damage occurred because of the actions.

Several corporations D’Isernia controls entered into agreements with the EPA to guard against future environmental problems that will result in thousands of dollars in costs and fines, and the restoration of nearly 60 acres of wetlands. Nearly all of his employees have or will undergo environmental and ethics training, and complete environmental audits have been or will be conducted at all the operation’s facilities, McGee said.

All told, the illegal dredging and its consequences will cost D’Isernia about $10 million. Attorneys representing all parties could not tell Smoak if that total exceeded the profits the business reaped as a result.

“I can’t say we’ve waved a magic wand and made everything all better,” Hensel said, but he told Smoak the settlement was a step down a path headed that direction.

PANAMA CITY — The owner of one of Bay County’s largest employers pleaded guilty Wednesday to environmental violations and paid the largest criminal fine ever assessed in Florida for wetlands violations.

Brian D’Isernia, 69, of Panama City Beach, was ordered to pay $100,000 and his company, Lagoon Landing LLC, was ordered to pay $2.15 million after D’Isernia and the company pleaded guilty to violating the Rivers and Harbors Act and the Clean Water Act, respectively.

“The defendants failed to secure required permits and damaged environmentally sensitive wetlands,” Maureen O’Mara, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in Florida, said in a statement.

D’Isernia admitted before U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak that he dredged a basin and a channel connecting the Allanton shipyard, where Eastern Shipbuilding is located, to East Bay without a permit so the company could build and move larger vessels. D’Isernia previously had a permit that would have allowed the dredging, but it lapsed.

Additionally, Lagoon Landing will make a community services payment of $1 million to the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), which manages money obtained in settlements. The money will be spent as quickly as possible on projects to preserve natural resources in three area coastal counties, NFWF Eastern Partnership Director Amanda Bassow said after the hearing.

As part of the plea agreement between D’Isernia’s attorneys and the federal government, D’Isernia and his businesses will not be barred from entering into contracts with government in the future, which was a crucial consideration, said David McGee, one of two attorneys who represented D’Isernia in court Wednesday.

McGee said the repercussion of D’Isernia being prohibited from contracting with the government would have been “huge for the company, D’Isernia and this community.” Eastern Shipbuilding Group Inc., another D’Isernia holding, is in the running for an $8 billion contract to build a fleet for the U.S. Coast Guard.

The property where Eastern Shipbuilding sits, while owned by another D’Isernia company, is adjacent to the Lagoon Landing property.

Eastern Shipbuilding builds ships for the oil industry, McGee said, and the need for larger ships has increased as oil wells have moved farther offshore into deeper waters. The basin at Eastern’s Allanton facility wasn’t deep enough to accommodate the larger ships, he said.

McGee said the average time to get a new permit is more than two years; in that time, D’Isernia would’ve lost business to competing companies in China who have fewer regulations. The dredging was a matter of necessity for D’Isernia and his nearly 1,600 employees, McGee said.

D’Isernia’s attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Hensel agreed to skip the reading of a statement of facts explaining exactly where and how D’Isernia and Lagoon Landing broke the law, so specific details are not clear, although it appears materials dredged from the basin and the channel ended up in alleged wetlands on Lagoon Landing property that is adjacent to Eastern’s Allanton Yard and East Bay. There was no showing what, if any, environmental damage occurred because of the actions.

Several corporations D’Isernia controls entered into agreements with the EPA to guard against future environmental problems that will result in thousands of dollars in costs and fines, and the restoration of nearly 60 acres of wetlands. Nearly all of his employees have or will undergo environmental and ethics training, and complete environmental audits have been or will be conducted at all the operation’s facilities, McGee said.

All told, the illegal dredging and its consequences will cost D’Isernia about $10 million. Attorneys representing all parties could not tell Smoak if that total exceeded the profits the business reaped as a result.

“I can’t say we’ve waved a magic wand and made everything all better,” Hensel said, but he told Smoak the settlement was a step down a path headed that direction.

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

PANAMA CITY — The president of Eastern Shipbuilding and one of his companies pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to one count of dredging without a permit.

Some of the details of the case came to light during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Panama City on Wednesday. Under the deal, Brian D'Isernia's corporation, Lagoon Landings LLC, will pay $2.15 million in fines. D'Iscernia must pay $100,000 personally as part of the plea deal, according to statements made during the hearing. According to records found online, D'Isernia also owns the Eastern Shipbuilding Group, which builds and launches large vessels from its shipyard in Allanton.

Lagoon Landings will have to pay an additional $1 million fine to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, officials said. Also, the company was placed on a three-year probation but there will be no probation or jail time for D'Isernia.

The fine is the largest criminal fine assessed for wetlands violations in Florida history, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

D’Isernia pleaded guilty to charges that he knowingly violated the Rivers and Harbors Act. Specifically, D’Isernia admitted to his involvement in illegally dredging an upland cut boat basin in Allanton and the channel connecting it to East Bay between December 2009 and February 2010, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Lagoon Landing, LLC, pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act for knowingly discharging a pollutant into waters of the United States without a permit. Between 2005 and 2010, Lagoon Landing used tractors and other heavy equipment to alter and fill wetland areas of property it controlled in Allanton without obtaining a permit. The wetland areas were adjacent to East Bay.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will use the money to fund projects for the conservation, protection, restoration and management of wetland, marine, and coastal resources, with an emphasis on projects benefiting wetlands in and around St. Andrew Bay.

This is a breaking story and we will have more details as they become available.